The back-grinding of product substrates is often necessary in the semiconductor industry and can take place mechanically and/or chemically. For purposes of back-grinding in general the product substrates are temporarily fixed on a carrier, there being various methods for the fixing. The carrier material can be for example films, glass substrates or silicon wafers.
Depending on the carrier materials used and the bonding layer used between the carrier and the product substrate, different methods for dissolving or destroying the bonding layer are known, such as for example the use of UV light, laser beams, the action of temperature, or solvents.
Stripping increasingly constitutes one of the most critical process steps since thin substrates with substrate thicknesses of a few microns easily break during stripping/peeling or are damaged by the forces which are necessary for the stripping process.
Moreover thin substrates have hardly any stability of shape or none at all and typically curl without support material. During handling of back-ground wafers therefore fixing and support of the wafers are essentially indispensable.
Therefore the object of this invention is to devise a device and a method to detach a product substrate from a carrier as nondestructively and easily as possible.
This object is achieved with the features of the claims. Advantageous developments of the invention are given in the dependent claims. The framework of the invention also encompasses all combinations of at least two of the features given in the specification, the claims, and/or the figures. In the specified value ranges, values which lie within the indicated limits will also be disclosed as boundary values and they are to be claimed in any combination.